How a little leather bag became the government’s money plan, and then a word for cheap. Tap ▶ to hear each step read aloud.
The Gauls, the ancient people of France, had a word for a leather bag, which the Romans borrowed as bulga.
The English word bulge comes from the same bag: something swelling out, like a full sack.
In Old French a bag was a bouge, and a little bag or purse was a bougette.
English borrowed it in the 1400s as budget: a pouch or wallet.
In Britain, the minister in charge of money, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, carried his papers to Parliament in a bag. When he presented the year’s accounts, he opened the budget: he opened the bag.
In the 1700s people joked about this, and the name moved from the bag to the papers inside.
A budget came to mean a plan for spending money: for a country, a company or a family.
Examples: the family budget
, we are over budget
. Even today the Chancellor holds up a red box on Budget Day.
If you have a small budget, you buy cheap things. So budget also means cheap.
Examples: a budget airline
, a budget hotel
, a low-budget film
.
French has now borrowed it back from English: le budget.
| bulge | to swell out, like a full bag |
| budget | (verb) to plan your spending |
| le budget | borrowed back into French from English |
“The bag became the plan.”